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All You "Real" Rap Fans Need to Stop Hating on 'What a Time to Be Alive'

You old head, super lyrical motherfuckers need to get over yourselves. Every time some new rap drops you sound bitter. “This ain’t that real shit,” you scream as you fix your two-toned durag and adjust your NT denim. We can't enjoy the two hottest rappers in the game dropping a joint tape? What exactly is that “real” shit then? Turn up music isn’t “real” hip-hop? How so? Was the genre not invented at a goddamn party? Isn’t music about having a good time? I’m dead tired of you cats, man. You make my head hurt. Can’t be listening to Talib Kweli rap off beat and Lupe Fiasco deep cuts at BBQs. I, too, was once like you, but come on, don’t nobody wanna hear that shit all the fucking time.

Let's try to define "real" rap. Is it Biggie or Jay Z? I remember when they were categorized as R&B rappers. "Real" rap to me has to have soul. It has to give you a feeling of jubilance when you listen to it. I may feel jubilance when I listen to Rakim and when I listen to Fetty Wap. Is that hard to believe? Do you even try when you're not hating? Why can't Black Moon and Rae Sremmurd both be "real" rap? You can walk around with your chewstick during the day and then turn up at the club at night.

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Can’t be listening to Talib Kweli rap off beat and Lupe Fiasco deep cuts at BBQs.

More importantly: Who cares what mainstream rap is doing when you have the Internet? There are so many great artists out there waiting for you to discover them. The game is changing and it’s for the better. Yes, you read that right. Because of the Internet, one can bounce around from genre to genre effortlessly. No one is forcing you to listen to Drake and Future. No one is putting a gun to your oversized fitted and making you download the tape as you piss your pants. I didn't hit play on What a Time to Be Alive and expect Malcolm X samples.

A lot of that “real” shit is boring when in certain settings, bro. The reason why Biggie, Jigga, and ’Pac are legends is because they were able to give us street, party, and “real” records. Future and Drake aren’t super lyrical miracle rappers, but one can argue that they can make all three. Drake is a simp and Future is a savage—it's the perfect marriage. One is a hitmaker while the other makes mainstream-leaning street records about his drug addiction.Future is baring his soul on this tape like he usually does. If that's not "real" I don't know what is.

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If you expect them to speak on social issues, you’re an idiot. Why is it impossible to enjoy this tape one minute and Rakim the next? Is that blasphemy? I saw some dude tweet some shit that old heads say all the time:

Whoa! *brain explodes all over my desk* Dude, no way! But wait...isn’t trap music about the streets and selling drugs? So, by definition aren’t Nas, Biggie, and Ghostface trap rappers? *hits blunt* And I don’t mean to pick on dude, but that’s a perfect example of how dumb some of you sound. I enjoy all of those rappers he mentioned. It’s really not that difficult. Listening to rap music is not rocket science. If you want to argue about radio playing bullshit that's cool and all, but I don't listen to the radio. Why? Because I'm a human being who is capable of making my own decisions. Catch up with the times.

I am so thankful for being able to sit comfortably between both generations. I had my tape deck ready to record Stretch & Bobbito mixes at two in the morning. I'm old enough to have multiple Hot 97 freestyles recorded on this thing called the audio cassette. I'm also young enough to appreciate the era we're currently in. I can buy (or illegally download) surprise albums with the click of a button. I'm not the biggest Drake fan by any stretch of the imagination, but even I—a former member of Old Head "Real" Rap Twitter—can salute Future and Drizzy for getting creative and surprising their fans with quality music. Don't be scared, old head; you are not dead, you're just living in the future. What a time to be alive, indeed.